Women really DO fancy rich men more - while blokes are more focused on looks

From How to Marry a Millionaire to Heartbreakers, ‘gold-digging’ women have been central to many of the most famous romantic comedies.

But a new study suggests that this stereotype may actually ring true – women really do fancy rich men more.

In the study, researchers from the University of Bath set out to understand what men and women prioritise in potential partners.

Their findings suggest that women prioritise social status and financial prospects, while men are more focused on looks.

‘Heterosexual men rated physical attractiveness higher than women, while the latter placed higher importance on social status and financial prospects than men,’ the team, led by Meike Scheller, wrote in their study.

Their findings suggest that women prioritise social status and financial prospects, while men are more focused on looks (stock image)

In their study, the team set out to understand whether or not sexual attraction influences partner preference.

‘Sexual attraction is assumed to guide interest, desire, and the affinity toward specific partner features,’ the team wrote in their study, published in The Journal of Sex Research.

‘However, whether sexual attraction can indeed explain sex differences in partner preferences has not been explicitly tested.’

The team recruited 310 participants who identified as asexual, gray-sexual or demisexual (meaning they feel little or no sexual attraction), as well as 166 people who identify as allosexual (feeling high sexual attraction).

The participants were surveyed about their sexual and romantic attraction intensity, as well as their mate preferences.

The results revealed that allosexual men prioritise physical attractiveness and intelligence in potential partners.

In contrast, allosexual women place greater importance on a potential partner’s financial prospects and conscientiousness.

However, these preferences were less pronounced in participants who felt little or no sexual attraction.

‘Women with low sexual attraction placed more importance on intelligence and education, and less importance on physical attractiveness, status and financial prospects or conscientiousness than women with higher sexual attraction,’ the team explained.

‘At the same time, men with low sexual attraction placed less importance on all partner characteristics, except social status and financial prospects, which already received the lowest importance rankings amongst all character traits.’

The findings suggest that sexual attraction plays a key role in partner preference.

‘Overall, the present study suggests that both sex and the strength of sexual and romantic attraction influence individuals’ mate choice preferences,’ the team concluded.

DO MEN THINK THEY’RE SMARTER THAN WOMEN?

A new study has revealed men think they are smarter than their peers, even when compared to women whose grades prove they are just as smart.

Researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) made the discovery after asking college students enrolled in a 250 strong biology course about their intelligence.

Specifically, students were asked to estimate their own intelligence compared to everyone in the class as well as the student they worked most closely with.

Experts were surprised to find that women were far more likely to underestimate their own intelligence than men.

When comparing a female and a male student, both with a grade point average of 3.3, the male student is likely to say he is smarter than 66 percent of the class.

A female student is likely to say she is smarter than only 54 percent of the class.

In addition, when asked whether they are smarter than the person they worked most with in class, the pattern continued.

Male students are 3.2 times more likely than females to say they are smarter than the person they are working with, regardless of whether their class partners are men or women.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk